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Snow removal and landscaping contractors can build a better business relationship with property managers if they can go beyond simply providing services, says Joe Markling, 2012-13 CEO of the Building Owners and Managers Association. "The landscape contractor can arm the manager with everything he needs to justify those decisions. ... [C]ontractors need to adopt the adviser mindset and create a trust where there's a benefit to these decisions and that you're not just trying to sell them more services or more plants," he says.

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The Maintenance Contractors of New England, a group of 20 of the largest building service contractors in the Boston area, agreed to contract terms with the Service Employees International Union 32BJ, which represents about 9,000 area janitors. The contract, which requires a vote by janitors, provides a 12% increase in pay over four years, paid family health benefits for 3,500 full-time employees and no fewer than four hours per shift for part-time workers.

A contractor relied on an engineering firm's geotechnical baseline report when working on a wastewater pipeline project in California, only to discover unexpected soil conditions. The US District Court for the Northern District of California determined that the contractor could submit a claim against the engineer for "breach of professional duty and/or negligent misrepresentation." Attorney James Earle contends the case "provides notice to all [e]ngineers that [c]ontractors have separate and distinct causes of action against [e]ngineers for misrepresentations associated with faulty plans and specifications that were relied upon during the bidding and construction process."

New York has received $17 billion in federal funding to repair and upgrade infrastructure following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Sen. Charles Schumer says. The influx of funding is the biggest of its type for the state since the 1930s, Schumer said.

Pittsburgh's Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens' Center for Sustainable Landscapes is the first institution to receive the International Well Building Institute's top recognition, the Well Platinum Pilot certification. The institute "integrates many features of nature that improve occupant mood, such as visual and auditory biophilic art and a restorative landscape with native plants," Caroline Massie writes.

Insurers should use customer-centric platforms that promote interaction in the claims process, writes Bill Sinn of Pitney Bowes. Tools are available to help insurers manage data efficiently and act quickly on claims, Sinn writes. "Ultimately, these technologies allow insurers to build stronger, richer relationships with their customers, promoting long-term loyalty in a quickly changing insurance landscape," he writes.